Do you think that the dad in this video acted too soon? I think he must have seen something off camera to get him to act as quickly as he did! Certainly he used his Active Self Protection to keep his wife and child safe from harm, and that’s what’s important.

What does this video teach us about protecting ourselves from carjackers?

Parents must consider their children in their defensive plan. The younger the child, the more the parent(s) must consider how holding or dragging their child will affect their ability to protect both of them. Naturally, the more children you have the more you’ll be constrained in retreat or running, and the more you’ll have to “stick your foot in the ground” and defend yourself without retreat. This father couldn’t really run from the carjackers effectively because he had his family with him!

If you have a spouse or significant other who isn’t a self-defender, it’s very important to teach them what their responsibility is if you ever have to use your firearm to defend you both. The same holds true for children or elderly parents or anyone who you are around a lot who doesn’t practice ASP at all. My wife and kids know that if they see my firearm at all they need to get DOWN and, if possible, get away from me because I am about to draw fire. In the car they know to get low.

We must never settle for being able to protect ourselves against a lone attacker because of how common multiple attacker engagements are. Rats travel in packs, so we must always be prepared to face multiple attackers!

Keep your firearm ready to fire. Some people carry their firearm with an empty chamber, but doing so is not recommended for several reasons. First, it assumes that you will have both hands available to you to draw your firearm, which isn’t necessarily the case. You might have a hand engaged or injured. Secondly, it assumes that you’ll have time to chamber a round in a gunfight, but gunfights are won and lost on tenths of seconds. Third, it assumes that you’ll have the dexterity to chamber a round under duress, though in the moment many times I have seen people fumble their chambering attempt. Keep your defensive firearm ready to fire, with a round in the chamber!

In a real gunfight, the chance of needing to shoot from an unconventional position is fairly high. Some gunfights happen at greater than two arms-length distance, where stance and press out matter. But many more happen at “bad breath” distances and from compromised shooting posture, whether a poor body position, or having the firearm in a grip or position that is less than ideal. Learning how to put shots on target from awkward and unconventional shooting positions is a very useful skill for the real world, indeed. If you ride a motorcycle, have you thought about fighting carjackers while stopped on the bike? It presents a whole host of problems of balance and maneuverability, and you really can’t start a motorcycle from a stop with one hand holding a gun.